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Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag stated that "result is secondary" to him after the team faced their first loss in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season on Monday. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defeated RR by 57 runs, bringing the Parag-led team's four-match winning streak to an end.
Two debutants, SRH's Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain played key roles in their team's win by taking four wickets each. Praful Hinge, 24, and 21-year-old Sakib Hussain, who SRH played instead of domestic and India veterans Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat, claimed figures of 4/34 in 4 overs and 4/24 in 4 overs, respectively. Riyan Parag said he does not focus heavily on match results, explaining that for him the outcome is secondary. He emphasised that he prefers to look at each game by identifying both positives and areas for improvement. Parag added that while winning and losing are part of cricket, his main goal is to be as clinical as possible. "I have never really thought about games like that, actually. The way I think about is, result is really secondary for me. Even today, I am going to take out the positives on one side and I'm going to take out the negatives or what we could have done better. And thats how I roll about it. We win, we lose--that's one part of the game but I want to be as clinical as possible which did not happen today. Moving forward, not repeating those mistakes and being there every time," Parag said at the post-match press conference. While RR still top the IPL 2026 points table, the loss ended their unbeaten run, leaving Punjab Kings as the only undefeated side in the season so far. Coming to the match, put to bat first, SRH posted 216/6, largely powered by skipper Ishan (91 in 44 balls, with eight fours and six sixes) and cameos from Heinrich Klaasen (40 in 26 balls, with a four and three sixes) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (28 in 13 balls, with four boundaries). During the chase of 217 runs, RR's top-order was ripped apart in the first over by debutant Praful (4/34 in four overs), and RR were left hopeless at 9/5. Donovan Ferreira (69 in 44 balls, with seven fours and three sixes) and Ravindra Jadeja (45 in 32 balls, with five fours) did put a century stand for net-run-rate's sake, but RR were bundled out for 159, with some late support by Sakib Hussain (4/24). (ANI)
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